Vox Clara, the international committee of bishops that advises the Holy See on English-language liturgical books, held its eighteenth meeting in Rome January 26-29, to review the final sections of the new Missal translation approved by the bishops’ conferences.

Vox Clara’s January 29 news release said that the members reviewed the two sections of the Missal  the Proper of the Saints (prayers specific to each saint in the Church’s liturgical calendar) and the Common of the Saints (general prayers for other saints.)

The committee also reviewed “various reports on the steps being taken for editing, coordination of manuscripts, and reviews for internal consistency” of the translation that is being carried out by the Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW), according to the Vox Clara news release. The group was assisted in their work by Marist Father Anthony Ward, undersecretary of the CDW.

Cardinal George Pell, Sydney, is chairman of the Vox Clara committee, and four US bishops are officers or members: Cardinal Justin Rigali, Philadelphia; Cardinal Francis George, Chicago; Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb, Mobile (emeritus); and Archbishop Alfred Hughes, New Orleans (emeritus). Vox Clara’s advisers include three Americans  Monsignor James Moroney, who serves as Executive Secretary, Benedictine Father Jeremy Driscoll, and Father Dennis McManus.

Source: Vox Clara news releases

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Workshops on Missal Planned for US Clergy and Diocesan Leaders

To prepare clergy and diocesan liturgical leaders for the implementation of the revised Roman Missal, a series of two-day regional workshops will be held across the country from April 15-16 to November 4-5 of this year. They are sponsored by the US Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship (BCDW) and the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions (FDLC), with the support of the National Organization for the Continuing Education of Roman Catholic Clergy (NOCERCC) and the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM).

The workshops will feature sessions on the background of the translation of the new texts, training for chanting texts of the revised Missal, presentations and discussion on the ars celebrandi (art of celebration), and discussion on implementation strategies in dioceses and parishes.

Primary staff for each seminar will be either Monsignor Anthony Sherman or Father Richard Hilgartner, executive and associate director of the Secretariat of the BCDW, respectively. Monsignor Sherman holds a doctorate in sacred theology from the University of Innsbruck. Father Hilgartner holds a licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontificio Ateneo Sant’ Anselmo, and is a doctoral student in liturgy at Catholic University of America. Both are members of the North American Academy of Liturgy and the Catholic Academy of Liturgy.

Each seminar will also have a second speaker  Brian Reynolds, chancellor and chief administrator of the Archdiocese of Louisville; Peter Zografos, director of campus ministry and adjunct faculty of Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio; or Dolly Sokol, director of development of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and board member of Partners In Preaching, a group that advocates lay ritual preaching (www.partnersinpreaching.org).

Workshops are planned for each of the fourteen episcopal regions of the United States. They will be offered in Cincinnati; Richmond, Virginia; Phoenix; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Kansas City, Missouri; Helena, Montana; St. Paul-Minneapolis; Denver; Orange, California; Louisville; Baltimore; Milwaukee; Trenton, New Jersey; San Francisco; Oklahoma City; Boston; Seattle; Alexandria, Louisiana; Albany, New York; Honolulu; San Antonio; and Orlando.

More information about the workshops will be available on the Roman Missal web site: www.usccb.org/romanmissal. Registration for the workshops is limited to priests and diocesan leaders.

Other educational efforts include provision of a series of related articles to diocesan media outlets including diocesan newspapers, magazines and web sites. In particular, USCCB Publishing is preparing several resources, including a Roman Missal Parish Implementation Guide, which will be available soon after the final text of the Missal is approved by the Holy See.

Sources: USCCB news releases

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CMAA Plans 2010 Chant Colloquium

The Church Music Association of America (CMAA) will hold its annual week-long Chant Colloquium at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, June 21-27.

The primary focus of the colloquium is instruction and experience in chant and the Catholic sacred music tradition, participation in chant and polyphonic choirs, lectures and performances and celebrations of liturgies in both English and Latin.

Attendance is open to anyone interested in improving the quality of music in Catholic worship. Professional musicians will appreciate the rigor, while volunteer singers and beginners new to the chant tradition will enjoy the opportunity to study under an expert faculty.

Sacred, Beautiful, & Universal: Colloquium XIX is an hour-long documentary produced by Corpus Christi Watershed. Watershed’s cameras take you inside the nineteenth annual Sacred Music Colloquium, sponsored by the Church Music Association of America (CMAA). The DVD includes a 45-minute interview with chant authority Dr. William Mahrt, CMAA President and professor at Stanford University. A CD of Colloquium XIX is also available for purchase.

“New Music, New Texts: Preparing for a new Missal” is the topic of a conference to be held at Saint John’s Abbey and University, Collegeville, Minnesota, June 21- 24, 2010.

The conference will explain the new Missal and provide implementation guidelines for all who engage in the art of music and liturgy. (Collegeville is the home of the Liturgical Press, publishers of liturgical books and hymnals.)

Presenters will include Paul Ford, Father Anthony Ruff, OSB, Sister Delores Dufner, OSB, and other Collegeville faculty. For more information, visit: csbsju. edu/sot/ccmla.

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Clergy Holds Liturgy Conference in Rome

The Year of Priests was the inspiration for a gathering of more than eighty priests and deacons in Rome January 4-8, for the first “Annual International Conference of English-Speaking Clergy”. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Australian and American Confraternities of Catholic Clergy.

Among the conference speakers were Monsignor Guido Marini, Papal Master of Ceremonies, and two of his consultors in the Office of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, Oratorian Father Uwe Michael Lang, of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW), and Benedictine Father Paul Gunter, professor at San Anselmo.

Several liturgies  Masses in both “ordinary” and “extraordinary” forms and Solemn Vespers  featured prominent prelates as celebrants: Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, prefect of the CDW; Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos, former head of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”; Archbishop Joseph Augustus Di Noia, OP, secretary of the CDW; and Archbishop Raymond Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Signatura.

The Lassus Scholars, of Dublin, performed choral music by Palestrina, Mozart, Haydn and others for the liturgies, which took place at St. Peter’s Basilica, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, Sanctissima Trinita dei Pellegrini, and Santa Maria in Trastevere.

Irish, Scottish and British clergy who attended formed a new regional Confraternity during the conference. The American and Australian Confraternities of Catholic Clergy were established over a quarter century ago in response to Vatican II’s Presbyterorum Ordinis, which urged the creation of associations of clergy to foster spiritual, theological and pastoral formation in a fraternal context.

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